‘Malone’s Melodies’ and More From Liberty Media’s Presentation

Oct 10, 2013 4:59 pm ET

By Martin Peers and Shalini Ramachandran

Bloomberg

Liberty Media’s Greg Maffei seen in May.

Liberty Media Corp. is known for its mind-bending financial engineering but at an investor presentation Thursday, Chief Executive Greg Maffei showed the company also has a sense of humor, with a series of slides teasing his boss, Liberty Chairman John Malone.

Liberty’s biggest home run in recent years has been its investment in Sirius XM Radio, made at the height of the financial crisis in 2009, which has generated several billion dollars in gains for Liberty. Mr. Maffei joked that Mr. Malone was programming his own channel on Sirius called “Malone’s Melodies.” Among the tunes listed on a series of slides were Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land,” a reference to Mr. Malone’s status as a major U.S. landowner, “Taxman” by the Beatles – Mr. Malone is famous for his tax-efficient structures – and “Baby Got Back” by Sir Mix-A-Lot (whose lyrics Mr. Maffei’s slides jokingly rewrote as “I Like Big Bucks”).

The most pointed slide, though, was labeled “Time Is on My Side,” by the Rolling Stones, above a Charter Communications stock-price chart and a photo of the Time Warner Center in New York. Liberty owns 27% of Charter and has made no secret of its desire to combine Charter and Time Warner Cable, which is based in the Time Warner Center.

The slide was the clearest reference, at Thursday’s presentation, to an idea that has gained currency among cable investors in recent months but so far gone nowhere with Time Warner Cable (a spokesman declined to comment Thursday).

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com.